Every year, in December in Japan, a word is chosen that represents that year. There’s a Kanji Character that represents that word. Kanji are the characters used to represent the Japanese language. They originally come from China.

The kanji character of the year is unveiled for the 1st time at Kiyomizu Temple each year.

Ayako wrote from Japan:

This year’s Kanji character is "gold" 金 (kin).

Many topics related to "gold" happened:

金環日食 – A Solar Eclipse occurred in Japan for the first time in years.

金メダル、- Gold Medals: Japan won a lot of gold medals at the London Olympics this year.

ノーベル賞 – Nobel Prize: Shinya Yamanaka, a Japanese physician and researcher won The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this year.